Three Days Too Late (The Story of Kafei)
by HappinessTM
Summary: A man in the body of a child. Cursed by a demonic mask. Impending doom. No hero to stop it. The end is just the beginning...


It's been almost a month since the moon began to fall towards the land of Termina, Its normally pleasant-smiling face has changed to a horrifying scowl when it started its descent. Tremors have been occurring more and more frequently, and each one brings the moon closer by making it lurch downwards, decreasing the amount of time before it crashes down. It will consume us, it will consume everything, Nothing will be left. I look up into its face once again, I can see every detail of it, every crater, every pebble, every crack that covers its face. I look at it, and it looks, mercilessly, pitilessly, back at me.

Everything had been going so well for me in the beginning. I had a good life, a good job, and I had finally proposed to my girlfriend. When I first met her, I had been returning home from the market in South Clock Town, there was a sudden downpour and I was forced to seek shelter within the Stock Pot Inn along with few dozen other people. "Excuse me. Oh, I'm sorry, I'll get you some towels. Anyone else need towels? Or tea? There's some on the stove. Oh dear." A slender, red-haired woman was making her way through the crowd. Trying to attend to everyone in the cramped lobby space.

"Hey! I need a towel over here!" Said a voice somewhere behind me.

"Coming!" Said the woman. She dodged her way through the crowd but stumbled right into me. All of the food I had gotten from the market escaped my hands and fell onto the floor. She stopped and cupped her hands over her mouth. "Oh... I... I am so sorry." She said, her hands muffling her voice. She crouched down and started to gather up the squashed fruits and bread but I stopped her.

"It's okay," I said to her, "I'll clean it up, you have other people to take care of right now."

She looked up at me for a moment, almost like she didn't know exactly what to say. Then she gave me a quick smile and nod, and disappeared into the crowd.

When the rain had stopped, and the crowd in the inn had cleared, me and the woman from earler were the only ones left. I had been sitting down on a bench in the lobby, and she sat herself down next to me with an exhausted sigh. "Tough day?" I said jokingly.

"Yeah." was all that she said.

"I'm Kafei by the way."

"Anju." She looked over at me and observed my face for a moment. "Wait... weren't you the gentleman who I bumped into earlier?"

"Yeah, but it's okay, really."

Her face turned red, "Oh! I made you waste all of that food!" Anju blurted, "Here, I can get some money so that you can get more." She ran over to the front counter and started rummaging through drawers.

"You really don't have to do that." I said. "I can just buy some more on my own."

She stopped then turned back around, "Are you sure? We have plenty of money if you-"

"I'm sure, thanks anyways."

"Alright then." She said with finality.

A second woman hobbled into the lobby, she had a striking resemblance to Anju, not counting the body fat and the crows feet, "Anju!" She bellowed, "Why aren't you at the front desk where you're supposed to be?"

"I was just talking to-"

"No excuses young lady!" She interrupted, "The rain's stopped and the crowd is gone, get back behind the counter until your shift's over."

"Yes, mother" Anju said obediently, she gave me a quick glance before stepping behind the counter.

"You." the mother said to me, "Do you have a reservation?"

"No, I was just leaving." I said to her.

She gave me a look that said _stay away from her _then disappeared around a corner.

I walked up to the counter where Anju was standing and said one last thing, "We can talk later, okay?"

She glanced around before nodding her head. I smiled then left without another word.

After that, we had started seeing each other regularly, trying to work around her hours and her mother, who really seemed like she didn't like me. After a few months, I realized how much I really liked Anju, so, I proposed one day. She said yes of course, and both of us were looking forward to our life together. The future looked bright. But pretty soon, everything would go wrong.

That night, I had just been leaving the local "_Milk Bar_" where I had been celebrating my engagement, the warm night combined with the light breeze made the walk home a pleasant one, and I had slowed my pace so that I could enjoy it longer. I hear children laughing a few allies away, it was way past any child's bedtime, there's no doubt that they're up to no good. I continue on my way only to hear the same laughter a few moments later, closer this time, much closer in fact. I look around trying to find the source, craning my neck so that I could get a good look everywhere behind me too. Nothing. I turn my attention back ahead of me when suddenly a bright yellow light swoops down in front of my face, which was more than enough to make me stumble backwards and land flat on my butt. Which was followed by a fit of laughter nearby.

"Okay, ha ha," I said sarcastically, "Shouldn't you kids be at home sleeping right now?"

"Shut up, stupid adult!" Says a voice, a girl's, "You can't tell us what to do!"

"Yeah!" Says a second voice, a boy's. "You should be taught a lesson! Right, Tatl?"

"That's a good idea Tael!" The first voice replied, "What do you think Skull Kid, should we teach this _grown-up_ a lesson?" The word "grown-up" was spat out like a bad piece of meat.

"Hee hee hee! Yes! Wonderful idea Tael!" The third voice sent chills up my spine, it was a child's voice, no doubt, but there was a tone to it that just sounded... Wrong. I turned around so that I could see this "Skull Kid" and the other two, and I came face to face with a pair of glowing yellow bloodshot eyes. Fear like no other crept up into me, and I broke into a cold sweat, the voice, the eyes, something was definitely wrong. I didn't want to be there anymore. Then the Skull Kid spoke again, "Maybe you wouldn't be so bossy if you weren't so old."

The other two laughed again, my eyes broke away from those of the Skull Kid's, and I saw them, two floating balls of light with wings, one glowing purple and the other glowing yellow. Faeries. Looking back at the Skull Kid, I could see his head shaking from side to side, tilting at freakishly impossible angles, I winced. Then his head suddenly snapped to one side with a loud "_crack._" I saw a flash of light, then darkness.

-oOo-

There was a knock at the door, "Anju, are you still in there?"

The woman in the room looked over, but didn't respond.

"Anju, please, we need to go now, The Mayor announced the evacuation orderthis morning. We don't have a lot of time."

Anju sighed and looked down at the object cradled in her hands, a mask. It had a simplicity to it, gray on one half and a darker gray on the other, the lighter side curved over onto the darker one, it was meant to represent a crescent moon. _Anju, we've been together for a long time now, and you know that I love you more than anything else. That's why I need to ask… Anju, will you marry me? _Anju remembered the words that her fiancée had said when he presented her this mask. For centuries, the wedding tradition in Termina has been for the couple to be wedded to exchange masks at the ceremony. She was to bring the mask that she has now, the Moon Mask, and he was to bring the one that he possessed, the Sun Mask. Anju had been looking forward to her wedding, but the day after the proposal, her future husband had vanished,

A jingling of keys broke her from her thoughts and the door swung open, revealing a portly woman who made no effort to hide the fear and frustration on her face. "Anju!" she bellowed. "We should have left hours ago! Now hurry up and get everything you need, nothing else! We're leaving now!"

"Yes, mother." Anju replied without looking up.

The woman grumbled but said nothing else before stalking away.

-oOo-

When I finally awoke, my head was throbbing madly with some serious pain. I sat up, but immediately regretted doing so because bile quickly rose up my throat and I threw up all over the ground next to me. I must look like a drunken slob to anyone passing by, but at least I felt a little better.

When I had finally finished dry heaving, I looked up to find myself somewhere completely different than I had anticipated, gone were the sidewalks and buildings of Clock Town. Instead, I found myself surrounded by a clutter of junk and unusual objects of all shaped and sizes, boxes and crates strewn about, a sandbox with a scarecrow standing in the middle of it, an oddly positioned bird cage with a cucco clucking and flapping about in what little space that the cage provided. The floor was wooden, but there was an odd discoloration to it, slightly red in some places, slightly blue in others, about every color of the rainbow covered the floor. A spiral staircase on one side of the room was lit up again with the same psychedelic colors but a lot brighter. Then the faint acrid smell of sewage drifted up my nose and I cringed at the odor. But the place, as odd at it was, seemed... familiar. "Pretty cool place isn't it? It would be even better if you would clean up that mess you made." The boy who had spoken strolled out from behind one of the crates in the corner. "Who are you anyways?"

I analyzed the newcomer, short, about ten years old give or take, white shirt, red headscarf. Yellow bloodshot eyes? Nope. Then I replied, "My name's Kafei, who're you?"

"They call me Jim, Leader of the Secret Society of Justice, The Bombers!" he announced proudly, saluting with his hand over his forehead.

"The Bombers?" I said, looking around the room one more time, the place was definitely familiar to me, then I remembered, "How did you carry me all the way to the Astral Observatory through the sewers?" I asked.

Jim's eyebrows shot up under his headscarf, "Wha-huh-how-" he stuttered, "How'd you know where our secret hideout is?"

"Because," I said while standing up, "I used to be a Bomber when I was younger."

"You did?" The boy looked me over once, then again, "I don't recognize you."

"I doubt that you would, it's been about thirteen years since I was a Bomber." I said.

A look of puzzlement fell on Jim's face, "Thirteen?" he said, "Are you even _that_ old?"

Now I was confused, "Uhh, yeah... I'm a lot older than that, actually."

Come on man, you can't be much older than me. Did you get hit in the head before we found you or something?"

"No, I..." _Maybe you wouldn't be so bossy if you weren't so old. _"Do- do you have a mirror around here somewhere?"

"Yeah, we do actually." He went back behind a large stack of crates and wheeled out a big mirror, covered in years of dust, then pulled off his headscarf and wiped it down haphazardly. "Here." he said while stepping off to the side.

I stepped over and observed myself in the mirror's reflection. I saw the same blue hair and the same reddish-brown eyes that I've always had. But the person standing opposite of me was a child. When I moved, he moved, I reached up to touch my face, the child did the same. This couldn't be happening. There's _no way _this is happening, but when I looked at my reflection again, there was no denying it. So, I did the only thing that any other normal person would do in this situation. I passed out, and fell face first onto the ground, which welcomed me with open arms. I heard the Bomber boy say something, but it seemed distant with the approaching unconsciousness.

* * *

**A/N: **How about that, you made it to the bottom! *Applause for you* Never have I ever been so interested in writing something before, so I put all my effort into this first chapter, and I have plenty of energy left for more. This story started out as an assignment for my English 11 class but I wanted to share my creativity with the world. I got turned down by every publisher I contacted, except for one shady deal that involved some... disturbing things, so I just decided to settle with posting to FanFiction.

I do plan on continuing this story. Usually I lose motivation on most long-term projects, but I really want to see this story though to the end... and beyond. If you enjoyed the story, or just want to point out any spelling or grammatical errors, leave a review, it would be much appreciated. I hope to see you in the next chapter!


End file.
